Team:UNIPV-Pavia/Biosafety

From 2011.igem.org

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Biosafety</h2>
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Q: Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety, or environmental safety?
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<b>1. Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:</b><br><br>
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A:  Quite the contrary. As a matter of fact the basic idea of the project is to control the production of a Quorum Sensing molecule (3OC6HSL). This cell-to-cell communication mechanism often regulates in nature the patogenicity of a bacterial strain and the contribution to the basic knowledge provided by this study might eventually help further studies and investigations concerning the proliferation of potentially unsafe organisms.
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<li><b>a. Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?</b></li>
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<li> The only risks are those usually associated with any other molecular biology lab. The potentially dangerous materials, i.e. ethidium bromide and UV radiations, are used only in the authorized areas of the lab with the necessary precautions (lab coat, lab glasses, gloves), according to the procedures approved by the Internal Safety Board. These spaces are attended only by authorized personnel, under the supervision of expert people. </b></li><br>
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Q: Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?
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<li><b>b. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?</b></li>
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<li> No, all the DNA parts used as well as the final product are all intrinsically safe. They do not represent any danger, nor does their transcripts or compounds they produce in vivo. The only risks are those normally involved in <em>E. coli</em> manipulation.</li><br>
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A: There is a biosafety board in our lab and also in our University: Università degli Studi di Pavia biosafety department.
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<li><b>c. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?</b></li>
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<li> None of the parts used poses any additional risks to the common ones demanded by <em>E. coli</em> use to environmental quality if released intentionally or not.</li><br>
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Q: What does your local biosafety group think about your project?
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A: Since standard safety procedures were regarded as appropriated for our work, the biosafety board approved our project without any particular restrictions. The board itself is in charge of training students in using devices and instruments following all safety prescriptions. In particular, we have handled ethidium bromide, hydrochloric acid 33% and IPTG following all safety prescriptions.
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Q: Do any of the new BioBrick parts that you made this year raise any safety issues?
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A: All the BioBrick parts we have designed and built are intrisically safe. Therefore no safety issues can be raised due to the fact that toxins or pathogenetic factors are not contained in or produced by plasmids/bacterial strains that have been used.
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<li><b>d. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states? </b></li>
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<li>The project does not involve design or production of potentially dangerous parts, not even in case of misuse by anyone with sinister intents, since our project does not require production of any toxic products or any other hazardous compounds.</li>
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<b>Specifically, are any parts or devices in your project associated with (or known to cause):</b>
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<b>- pathogenicity, infectivity, or toxicity?</b></li>
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<li> No, there are no parts used or produced nor devices associated with toxicity, infectivity or pathogenicity. The genes used are implicated in the mechanism of bioluminescence; all of them have already been utilized by other teams in older iGEM competitions and they do not present risks linked to their cloning or expression in <em>E.coli</em>.</li> <br>
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<li><b> - threats to environmental quality? </b></li>
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<li>There are no threats to environmental quality of any kind, since we are exploiting Quorum Sensing (QS), which is a mechanism already present in nature.</li><br>
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<li><b>- security concerns?</b></li><li> No, as already stated, the only dangerous materials are the ones routinely used in molecular biology labs, like UV radiations and ethidium bromide.</li></br>
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<b>2. Under what biosafety provisions will / do you operate? </b><br>
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We work in a level 1 biosafety lab since we only work with non-pathogenic strains of <em>E. coli</em>.<br><br>
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<li><b>a. Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they?</b></li>
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<li>Yes, our institution provides us with <a href='http://www.unipv.it/safety/'>biosafety regulations</a>
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</li><br><br>
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<li><b>b. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns or changes that were made based on this review.</b></li>
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<li>There is a biosafety board in our department (<a href='http://cit.unipv.it/cit_it/'>C.I.T. – Centro interidpartimentale di Ingegneria Tissutale</a>).
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Since standard safety routine were enough for our work, the biosafety board approved our project without any particular restriction. It took care to train students in using devices and instruments following all safety prescriptions. In particular, we have managed ethidium bromide, hydrochloric acid 37%, and IPTG following all safety prescriptions. No changes were made based on this review nor any concerns were raised.</li><br><br>
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<li><b>c. Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project? If so, describe this training.</b></li>
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<li>Yes, all the students received biosafety and lab training before the beginning of the project to learn how to correctly handle chemicals and living materials and how to properly dispose of them. Moreover, all the students have always worked under the supervision of experienced advisors.</li><br><br>
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<li><b>d. Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? If so, provide a link to them online if possible.</b></li>
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<li>Yes, for what concerns the use of genetically modified micro-organisms there is the <a href='www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_normativa_814_allegato.pdf'>D.M.25.09.2011</a>.<br>
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<a href='http://www.iss.it/chis/?lang=2'>ISS</a> (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) is the Italian public institution that provides guidelines for biosafety in scientific research.
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Latest revision as of 08:59, 19 September 2011

UNIPV TEAM 2011

Biosafety

1. Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:

  • a. Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?
  • The only risks are those usually associated with any other molecular biology lab. The potentially dangerous materials, i.e. ethidium bromide and UV radiations, are used only in the authorized areas of the lab with the necessary precautions (lab coat, lab glasses, gloves), according to the procedures approved by the Internal Safety Board. These spaces are attended only by authorized personnel, under the supervision of expert people.

  • b. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?
  • No, all the DNA parts used as well as the final product are all intrinsically safe. They do not represent any danger, nor does their transcripts or compounds they produce in vivo. The only risks are those normally involved in E. coli manipulation.

  • c. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?
  • None of the parts used poses any additional risks to the common ones demanded by E. coli use to environmental quality if released intentionally or not.

  • d. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states?
  • The project does not involve design or production of potentially dangerous parts, not even in case of misuse by anyone with sinister intents, since our project does not require production of any toxic products or any other hazardous compounds.

Specifically, are any parts or devices in your project associated with (or known to cause):
  • - pathogenicity, infectivity, or toxicity?
  • No, there are no parts used or produced nor devices associated with toxicity, infectivity or pathogenicity. The genes used are implicated in the mechanism of bioluminescence; all of them have already been utilized by other teams in older iGEM competitions and they do not present risks linked to their cloning or expression in E.coli.

  • - threats to environmental quality?
  • There are no threats to environmental quality of any kind, since we are exploiting Quorum Sensing (QS), which is a mechanism already present in nature.

  • - security concerns?
  • No, as already stated, the only dangerous materials are the ones routinely used in molecular biology labs, like UV radiations and ethidium bromide.


2. Under what biosafety provisions will / do you operate?
We work in a level 1 biosafety lab since we only work with non-pathogenic strains of E. coli.

  • a. Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they?
  • Yes, our institution provides us with biosafety regulations


  • b. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns or changes that were made based on this review.
  • There is a biosafety board in our department (C.I.T. – Centro interidpartimentale di Ingegneria Tissutale). Since standard safety routine were enough for our work, the biosafety board approved our project without any particular restriction. It took care to train students in using devices and instruments following all safety prescriptions. In particular, we have managed ethidium bromide, hydrochloric acid 37%, and IPTG following all safety prescriptions. No changes were made based on this review nor any concerns were raised.


  • c. Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project? If so, describe this training.
  • Yes, all the students received biosafety and lab training before the beginning of the project to learn how to correctly handle chemicals and living materials and how to properly dispose of them. Moreover, all the students have always worked under the supervision of experienced advisors.


  • d. Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? If so, provide a link to them online if possible.
  • Yes, for what concerns the use of genetically modified micro-organisms there is the D.M.25.09.2011.
    ISS (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) is the Italian public institution that provides guidelines for biosafety in scientific research.


Laboratory for Biomedical Informatics | Centre of Tissutal Engineering

University of Pavia
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